Planche and Tendon Strengthening

Dr. Yaad interview with Professor Keith Baar, one of the world’s leading researchers on how tendons, ligaments, and muscles adapt to training, nutrition, and hormones.



Among the Youtube comments, I found this summary of Baar's 10-min. protocol for tendon healing/strengthening

1. Recovering trainee: 30 sec hold + 2 mins rest, four times per session. 1-4 sessions 6 hours apart
2. Healthy trainee: 10 sec holds = 2 mins rest, once per day
3. Acutely injured trainee: See segment starting around 1:06 and see your doctor.

It's just a coincidence that Youtube put this video in my feed as I contemplate taking on Free Planche Mini Course by Eduardo Orihuela. I first saw him in GMB Fitness videos, demonstrating skills such as front lever, butterfly kick, planche, etc. Later he started offering his own fitness instructional material.

As part of my decision process of whether or not to go head with the planche mini course as my next training block, I tested a couple of exercises that are in the course to see if any would be painful. I did a planche lean for a few seconds on my parallettes. The elbows felt fine. Planche lean with hands on the floor also feels fine. I also did a couple of pushups on the parallettes. My suspect left shoulder felt some irritation. I then moved the parallettes closer together and tried again - this time the shoulder felt fine.

The interview reminded me of the collagen supplement I took when I experimented with stress relaxation tendon training last year. The mini course does not ask you to do planche leans or planche holds for time right away. The idea of taking the collagen supplement is to provide a supply for the tendon to grow, after being stimulated by isometric holds.

I do not expect training under this mini course to result in achieving the tuck planche this year, let alone a tuck planche pushup. I also do not expect any gain in muscle size, because I don't see anything in the program that would stimulate muscle growth. I do believe, however, that if I do the mini course for at least 6 weeks, I can achieve the crow pose, and be able to do each rep of the Frogger as slowly as 3 seconds. Most people start doing the Frogger with a hop of the feet because they're not strong enough to support their bodyweight on their hands for more than a second. As they get stronger, they can support their weight on their hands for more than a second, and start dragging their feet on the floor instead of hopping. I can currently take between 1-2 seconds to drag my feet on each Frogger rep. The mini course will have me work on dragging the feet more slowly, so that I'll eventually be able to pause for 1-2 seconds with the feet in the air - which would be a sign of progress towards the tuck planche.

Tendon Burn Count: Week 9

I retested my Zercher Lunge 1-rep max and got 95.7 lbs, which about a 10lb. improvement over the 85.4 lb. 1-rep max as tested 3 weeks ago.

I continue to put in the work for the other exercises and have observed modest progress, though nothing dramatic

I started Systematic Core Training For Kettlebells (SCT4KB) back in June. Lately I've been focusing on the hollow body progression. If you search the Internet you'll find a variety of tutorials with suggested progressions. SCT4KB's approach is working great for me. It starts with 10-sec. holds and gets you to 60-sec. holds in a sensible way. I completed all the milestones for Supine and Prone training in the Stability phase, which prepared me well for starting the hollow body progression with tucked knees and feet lifted off the floor. I quickly reached a 60-sec. hold, then moved to the next progression which is one leg straight, the other leg tucked. I then got to 60 sec. holds on both sides. I then attempted a hold with both legs straight but could not get the legs lower than about 45 degress to the floor. I then decided the next progression would be one leg straight and the other leg bent with the toe touching the ankle of the straight leg. I eventually got to 60 sec. hold on each side. This week I retested with both legs straight and this time the legs were closer to about 30 degrees. I was able to easily hold the position for 10 sec.

I haven't worked on SCT4KB side lying as much because Tendon Burn Count sessions are 3x a week and each session takes about an hour, even after cutting Zercher Lunge holds from 30 sec. per side to 6 sec. per side. I've preferred to focus on TGU and hollow body training on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hopefully after I'm done with Tendon Burn Count I'll have more time to work on side lying again.

I'm on track to achieve a 60-sec. hollow body hold with both legs straight and both arms extended overhead before the end of the year. SCT4KB suggests completing all floor work before moving on to supported/hanging work. The floor work includes hollow body hold and supine leg raises. The supported/hanging work includes L-Sit and hanging leg raise. I'll probably hit all the milestones for the supine leg raises next. After that if I'm still not satisfied with my overhead reaching mobility, I might take on hollow body with weighted pullover instead of supported/hanging work.

Tendon Burn Count: Week 4

I'd injured the shoulder years ago when I decided to attempt a Kettlebell Arm Bar with a 24kg kettlebell. A Kettlebell Arm Bar with a 16kg kettlebell was barely safe for me. I forgot why I decided to try a 24kg Arm Bar. What I do remember is losing control of the 24kg KB, so that it fell, missed my head, and injured my shoulder. The shoulder eventually healed, but has been unstable at times. For example last year, the shoulder lost some stability after some KB Clean+Press training, and thus started to hurt. But then afterwards I did The Giant 1.1 and 1.2 and the shoulder held up fine.

Another tendon concern I had was with the elbows. In the case of my golfer's elbow, I found an IsoMax strap setting for Bicep Curl which makes me feel like the golfer's elbow tendons are being worked. They hurt a bit, although I can reduce the pain or even make it go away altogether by engaging the upper back muscles, as described in this Red Delta Project video.

I've been hoping IsoMax training under Tendon Burn Count would improve shoulder stability, more than 6x6. From what I understand, the shoulder tendons include the 4 rotator cuff tendons and the bicep tendon, which connects the bicep to the shoulder. Until this week, I was using an IsoMax strap setting that put the bar at about the 1/4 position of the Overhead Press. I figured this position would hit the shoulders more than the lowest possible position. Training at this position seemed fine, but I didn't feel any of these 5 tendons being challeneged.

So, I decided to change the IsoMax strap setting for Overhead Press. The new setting put the bar at just under the 1/2 position, which thus has the elbows at close to 90 degrees. To ensure that I would be training at 70% of my 1-rep max, I had to test my 1-rep max at this new position. This 1-rep max turned out to be about 67 lbs. I feel at least one of the 5 shoulder tendons working more than at the 1/4 position. The new position feels fine, though I have to work my lats a little harder to keep the shoulders in their sockets. My grip is wider at this position compared to 1/4, which roughtl mimics the double kettlebell press. At the bottom of the double KB press, the hands are less than shoulder width apart. As I press the KBs up, the hands are pulled apart by a combination of the KBs' centers of gravity and how the body seems to be designed to move.

Tendon Burn Count: Week 1

For the Monday session, I did 3 reps per exercise, with a minimum 20-second rest between reps. This was ok for the Zercher Lunge because I was able to hold for only 17 sec, so about 20 sec. rest between reps was fine. This was also fine for the next exercise, which was Calf Raise. Overhead Press took more out of me. I had the load set to 70% of 1-rep max, as with the other exercises, but Overhead Press 30-sec. hold at 70% RM just felt harder. I needed quite a bit more than 20 sec. to rest between reps. Bicep Curl and Standing Shoulder Extension were similarly demanding. By the time I got to Standing Shoulder Extension, I'd accumulated quite a bit of fatigue anyway.

The study that inspired this program mentioned that the athlete consumed baking gelatin and orange juice, one hour before each training session. Baking gelatin is a cooked form of collagen. The body will synthesize more collagen for tendon strengthening if collagen and vitamin C had been ingested 30-60 min. before training. Ingesting these supplements after training is apparently also fine, but tendon development may not be as quick I guess. I went ahead and ordered hydrolyzed collagen powder, which arrived Tuesday. Before the Wednesday and Friday sessions, I ingested a bit of water mixed with the collagen powder, and at least one glass of orange juice.

For the Wednesday and Friday session, I did the exercises in a circuit, for 3 rounds, resting as needed. This was bit more time-efficient than doing 3 sets per exercise.

Stress Relaxation Training for Tendon Strength and Pain Reduction

Burn Count is a training program from the book Ultimate Isometrics Manual, by Paul Wade, for use with the IsoMax/Isochain. The stated goal of Burn Count is to build strength and muscle. Most IsoMax/Isochain users tend to think of Burn Count as a muscle building (hypertrophy) program.

This article summarizes the content of a video by The Movement System about tendon stress relaxation and how to train to achieve it for pain relief and for tendon strength gains.

The Movement System later published a followup video on the science of tendon strength training, specifically stress relaxation. This later video repeats a fair amount of content from the earlier video. Some differences in content compared to the earlier video:

• Isometric hold per set should be 30-45 seconds, compared to just 30 seconds
• It takes up 3 months to expect significant changes in tendon strength, compared to the earlier statement that changes can manifest in as little as 2 months.
• If the targeted tendon is pain free, only 1 exercise is needed to strengthen the tendon. 2-4 exercises targeting the same area are recommended for reduction of tendon pain.

Some guidelines that are still the same:

• Aim for 7/10 intensity, which should be about 70% of 1-rep max.
• 3-6 sets of each exercise is the recommended volume for one session
• Sessions should be every other day or 3-4 times per week. Do not do this every day.

Based on the info on the above tendon strength videos, I came up with this isometric tendon stress relaxation training program/protocol which I decided to call Tendon Burn Count. The name is inspired by the Burn Count program from the book Ultimate Isometrics Manual, by Paul Wade, even though it doesn't have much in common wit Burn Count other than a similar hold time:

• Test for 1-rep max for each of the selected exercises, under the 1-rep max testing protocol in the Paul Wade book.
• Set the starting target load to 70% of 1RM (1-rep max).
• Apply force to get the IsoMax beeping and hold for at least 30 seconds.
• When the hold can be done for 45 seconds, increase target load.
• Perform the exercises in a circuit, resting as needed
• Program length is 12 weeks (3 months)

The research article that inspired the above videos is here. I may try drinking orange juice with gelatin before training, just as described in the research article. The article states that the subject did not gain muscle mass but did gain muscular strength in addition to tendon strength. I would be ok with not gaining muscle mass under this program if the results are increased strength and better feeling elbows. The research subject actually started training with 10s holds and did not train with 30s holds until the 6th month of his program - I think that might have affected his muscle size gains, or lack thereof.

Thus, I did my first workout under Tendon Burn Count. I've done 30-sec. holds under Burn Count, but not at 70% 1-rep max. 30s holds at 70% RM is noticeably more difficult than in my previous experience. I did my selected exercises in a circuit, taking just enough rest to catch my breath between holds and resting at least 20s between rounds. I chose 5 exercises so I figured I'd be resting 30s x 4 = about 2 min. before I circle back for another rep of the same exercise. I have golfers elbow so my forearms ached when I did 30s bicep curl, but not more than a 3 out of 10 on the pain scale - Matt Schiifferle's back spiral technique helps here too. I'll increase load if I'm able to hold 45 seconds.

Zercher Lunge with the bar at a low setting has always been difficult for me. I can't hold at that position for 30s no matter how low I set the target load. I decided to go with a 20lb target load. The 20lb setting is low enough to get the bar to start beeping with minimal effort, but not so low that the bar will start beeping too easily. My best hold time for this first workout was 12s. Achieving a 20s hold would be good for me.

For the Calf Raise I went with a supinated straight-arm grip, to try to avoid too much pronation, per Geoff Neupert's video on pronation/supination balance. 70% 1RM was a challenge, but not as much as balance.

Overhead Press at 70% 1RM was also challenging but I was still able to do 30s.

Bicep Curl was a little painful for my elbows, but well short of the amx 4 out of 10 on the pain scale.

Standing Shoulder Extension felt ok for my low back win the tuck front lever like position. I felt my low back and quads working but not in way that felt dangerous for the low back. This exercise targets the lats and the teres major, which both contribute to shoulder stability. I'll try a wider grip next time to see if the teres major can be targeted a little more.

The main indicator for me as to how well Tendon Burn Count works is how my elbows feel after 3 months. Another indicator is change in my 20kg kettlebell strict press rep max. The rep max at the start of this program is 3. I'd like to do the Kettlebell Burn program sometime this year - the minimum rep max for that is 4. So improving rep max to 4 would be fine for me.

Tendon Burn Count: 1-Rep Max Test Results

I tested my 1-rep max for each of the following exercises, using the protocol in the book Ultimate Isometrics Manual. The results in pounds:

• Zercher Lunge - 70.13
• Calf Raise - 142.06
• Overhead Press - 76.8
• Bicep Curl - 46.07
• Standing Shoulder Extension - 24.4

These are the exercises I have selected for a new IsoMax program that I am calling Tendon Burn Count. The name is inspired by the Burn Count program in Ultimate Isometrics Manua. Burn Count features 20-45 second isometric holds, which is similiar to the hold time in Tendon Burn Count, but otherwise has several differences. More details soon.

• Zercher Lunge - One of the exercises recommended in Matt Schifferle leg strength article. When I train with kettlebells, most of my squatting is bilateral, so when I train with IsoMax, I tend to go with Zercher Lunge for addressing asymmetries on top of stimulating leg strength gains.
• Calf Raise - My Achilles tendon feels fine but I'm hoping this exercise will help relieve various aches and pains I've had in my feet which seem to have started after stubbing my toes too many times on Judo/Aikido/BJJ mats
• Overhead Press - Not sure exactly what tendons will be targeted by this exercise. I just wanted to do at least one pressing exercise in Tendon Burn Count. Any tendons strengthened by this program should contribute to dynamic pressing performance. There may be some muscular strength and muscle size gains as well.
• Bicep Curl - The regular bicep curl can cause my golfer's elbow to flare up. For this exercise I tried to set the bar so that the injured elbow tendons would be stimulated to heal and get stronger - while not being too irritated - and the biceps would be at a decent length for possible strength and size gains.
• Standing Shoulder Extension - Found this exercise in another Matt Schifferle article, which is about how he fixed his shoulder issues. Matt found this exercise, which he also calls "standing lat pull", improved lat activation for pressing, as well as overall shoulder stability. In today's 1-rep max test, I struggled to find body positioning for this exercise that felt relatively safe for my low back. Then I saw the article comment section in which Matt confirmed this exercise and the front lever should feel the same as shoulder extension exercises. Next time I try this exercise, I will try setting up my body almost as if I were doing a tuck front lever - feet at hip width or even closer together, knees bent, belly in contact with thighs, torso parallel to floor, tense the triceps to ensure straight arms. I might have to add one more cue which is to try to bend the bar, which should add external rotation to the shoulders.

I decided to switch from 6x6 to Tendon Burn Count after watching this video. This latest 6x6 training block produced decent gains in drag curl and Jefferson lift. Overhead pressing performance was not improving however, and starting to regress a bit. Whether it was because I wasn't using the lats enough to activate the chest, or because I stopped eating the 20g protein bars for breakfast doesn't really matter at this point. I was intrigued by the idea of improving shoulder stability by strengthening the tendons instead of just training for muscle size/strength.

GMB exercises for Tendon Health and Strength

GMB does caution that these exercises are intended for people who have been training for several months without feeling pain or other issues of tendon health

Shoulder Tendon

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A variety of strengthening methods would be best for tendon health and strength. Depending upon your current condition (training status, injury status). Isometrics, heavy and light training, slow and ballistic training. - If you are nursing an injury and currently have pain (tendonitis) then you would approach your exercises differently than if you were feeling great and have several months of consistent good training. - Let’s start with some examples for the latter, and assume you aren’t dealing with any significant tendon/joint issues. - Shoulder Swings: Use your lower body to drive the speed of the swings. 1. Both hands swinging up overhead 2. One hand swinging up overhead 3. One hand swinging at angle to side and behind 4. One hand swing at angle in front and to the side - Hanging side to side swaying: Rings is best but bar is okay. Whatever you feel is best. - Pushup plyos: 1. Both hands 2. One hand Give these a go and see how it feels! - . . . . . #gmbfitness #gmbtrainer #goldmedalbodies #shoulderhealth #jointhealth #happyjoints #bodyweightexercises #bodyweightworkout #shouldermobility #mobility #mobilitytraining #movement #flow #shoulderswings #pushups #plyopushups #physicaautonomy #physicalfreedom #exerciseathome #fitness #physicafitness

A post shared by GMB Fitness (@gmbfitness) on Jul 21, 2020 at 1:56pm PDT

Wrist and Elbow Tendons

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On Monday we showed a variety of exercises for Shoulder tendon health and strength. Today we’ve got some more goodies involving the wrists and elbows! Check out the following exercises demonstrated by GMB Trainer Eduardo @eorihuela. - 1. Backhand weight shifts: Hold a few seconds then shift over - 2. Wrist flexor plyos: Emphasize pushing off fingertips - 3. Pronated drop and grab: Could be any weight or sturdy object. Eduardo here uses a piece of cut up wood with a pinch grip. - 4. Pushup plyos Both hands/One hand: From knees is great because you focus on quality reps. - Give these a go and see how it feels! - . . . . . #gmbfitness #gmbtrainer #goldmedalbodies #shoulderhealth #jointhealth #happyjoints #bodyweightexercises #bodyweightworkout #shouldermobility #mobility #mobilitytraining #movement #flow #shoulderswings #pushups #plyopushups #physicaautonomy #physicalfreedom #exerciseathome #fitness #physicafitness

A post shared by GMB Fitness (@gmbfitness) on Jul 23, 2020 at 12:39pm PDT